Neil Cameron: Rangers are a rudderless shambles with no clear plan and players who don't want to be there

THE highlight of Rangers’ season so far has been Celtic getting cuffed 7-1 last week by arguably the best team in the world.

This Paris pummelling, celebrated by bluenoses everywhere, was bookended by their own team losing at home to Hamilton Academical, for the first time in the league since 1926, and Friday night’s defeat to a Dundee side which began the game bottom of the Premiership.

It is the Rangers support’s bad luck that such low times are coinciding with the introduction of minimum alcohol pricing. The performances this season, on and off the pitch, would drive anyone to the drink.

There is no manager in place and unless a rabbit is pulled out a hat, that’s going to be the state of play for at least another week.

Graeme Murty is a good man who can hold his head up high, but it’s clear that while the youth coach is capable of being The Man for a couple of games, he is out of his depth and that is said with every due respect.

As one Rangers fan said on Friday night after the match during an entertaining vlog; when Neil McCann sent on Scott Allan, a decision which won the game, Murty was caught on camera chewing his zip.

He was only supposed to be in situ for a couple of weeks. Murty himself did not expect to still be holding the reigns and as the boss who isn’t really the boss, feels he can’t give the players a bollocking they so richly deserved on Friday night.

Dundee are no world beaters and a draw would have been a fair, if still disappointing result. However, McCann’s team played the better football and showed far more grit and determination than their visitors.

At the risk of repeating myself, a question which must asked, and there is an AGM on Thursday, is when was the last good decision made by the Rangers board, both past and present?

There are some, and it's now only some, who believe every statement sent out via a supporters’ group claiming everything is fine and there is nothing wrong with the club taking their time to appoint a successor to the flawed experiment who was Pedro Caixinha.

A list of managerial candidates should have been written on a piece of paper during the flight back from Luxembourg in July.

The board knew Caixinha was a goner after losing the League Cup semi-final to Motherwell and, in truth, there were more than a few inside Ibrox who wanted him out long before then.

They obviously believed Murty would buy them some time because the fixture list was, in principle, kind to the interim manager. That last two defeats have shown that the new man should have been in place during the international break.

Derek McInnes, for me, was the obvious choice. That he wasn’t even approached is baffling. Now he may have said no, managing Rangers can be bad for your health, but at least sound the guy out.

And as for Eduardo Herrera, who is on the best part of £1m a season, his performance as a substitute on Friday shamed the jersey he was wearing.

Rangers have enough good-to-okay Scottish Premiership players to finish in the top four. Despite decent money being spent in the summer, they have not moved forward from Mark Warburton’s side, and it is doubtful whether King will sanction as big a spree next summer.

Indeed, the only movement in January could be some of the dross being shipped out and that is going to cost money for a club which is hardly flush. What a mess.

Aberdeen are at Ibrox on Wednesday night and should they win and win well, King and his cohorts are going to be given a torrid time at the AGM.

King is not Mike Ashley which is a good thing. But that alone is not enough to be a successful Rangers owner.

I’ve read and heard a few claiming that Ashley, who is a billionaire, would the man, albeit not a nice man, to take Rangers forward. They are so, so wrong.

Rangers were never going to challenge Celtic this season but given they were able to recruit, they should be a lot better than they are. Aberdeen will fancy themselves this midweek and next Sunday at Pittodrie.

But, then, who wouldn’t fancy taking on a manager-less Rangers team with players who simply don’t care.

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